


The Brilliant Dance

by sharkle



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-23
Updated: 2010-09-23
Packaged: 2017-10-12 03:35:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/120324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharkle/pseuds/sharkle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A side-stepping has come to be a brilliant dance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Brilliant Dance

The music starts.

Us - we don't dance right away. We haven't yet learned how to make it work. Instead, we glare at each other from opposite ends of the dance floor, watching all the others, who spin and twist and smile and laugh, most of the time, but there are those dances that stop suddenly and send someone off in tears; or, even worse, when all the signs are there, and they were just hoping it couldn't be true.

Somehow, we wind up standing together, friends but still fighting, still watching from the sidelines. And every now and then, the dance around us changes, becoming one with spells and dead bodies and fear, and when the smoke clears and the dance returns to normal, we pretend that we're not too afraid to take a chance, find a partner.

Fake, the music says, when we turn our backs on each other and try to dance with someone else - only these dances aren't right. She's excited and he's cocky. They don't match us.

We match us.

But maybe the reason we don't want to see it is that we're scared; scared of getting our toes stepped on, our hearts stepped on or getting dizzy from the relentless spinning or falling and not getting picked back up. There are just too many possibilities.

So we duck around each other, somehow always coming right back. We keep side-stepping, keep blocking each other's paths, twirling around and around, an endless game of tag, until, finally, we can't deny it any longer.

And we're brave enough to start dancing.

At first, we do step on each other's toes, constantly, and we hold hands awkwardly, our palms sweaty - but eventually, we find our rhythm, changing our dance from tango to waltz to foxtrot, none of which fit us in the end, because all that's left is a slow dance, swaying slowly as our breathing aligns and our hearts beat along with with the music all around us, our gazes locking forever and our steps becoming choreographed, perfectly in line with the other's, and we pull each other closer, wanting to never, ever let go.

A side-stepping has come to be a brilliant dance.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Dashboard Confessional's "The Brilliant Dance." The last line/summary is actually a line from the song, although the song isn't anything like what the story is based around.


End file.
